Marion Nestle, professeure de nutrition à l’Université de New York et responsable de l’excellent site “Food Politics »,  a écrit deux livres majeurs dévoilant les secrets honteux de l’industrie alimentaire, “What to Eat » et “Food Politics ». Depuis, les lecteurs se font moins enfirouaper par les supermarchés. Avec Malden C. Nesheim, experte en nutrition animale, elle scrute dans son dernier livre l’importante industrie du pet food ( 18 milliards US). “Feed Your Pet Right: The Authoritative Guide to Feeding Your Dog and Cat” (Simon & Schuster; $16.99).

Q: Is it in the best interest of the pet food industry to confuse us?

A: Of course – they are selling products that are inexpensive to make and profitable to sell, and all they have to do is convince pet owners if they don’t use their products, they are making a big mistake.

They would prefer you don’t think about what’s in there – the byproducts of human food products. There are billions of pounds of leftover parts of cows, pigs, chickens and sheep after they are slaughtered for human consumption, and something has to be done with it or it will be wasted. One way is to feed it to dogs and cats. They don’t care what part of the animal it comes from.

Q: Is price an indicator of quality?

A: We were rather surprised by what we found. We bought a collection of chicken dinners for pets that were all premium brands, which is a code for higher price. We compared the first five ingredients, the health claims and price, and although the ingredients were all the same, there was a threefold increase in price. So there’s some heavy marketing going on here. The word “premium” has no regulatory meaning, so you have to read what’s in the product.

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